Kern

Session 043

Bantin: Fallen, Never to Return?

At the end of the last session we had just about finished escorting a group of refugees to Avgard when we were ambushed by a group posing as Avgard patrolmen. They had just killed Bantin when they began to attack one of their own: a female human.

-One of the enemies standing between Searos and Salemar begins to sizzle as purple smoke rises from his wounds healing them. One of the robed figures near Geoffrei screams “I give myself to the chaos!” and transforms into a grotesque demon with shimmering scales and crossed eyes. The gargoyle and other begin to focus on attacking Bantin’s relative.

-We eventually dispatch all the enemies and loot the patrol guard’s shield, along with a lodestone and a tome of rituals.

-We learn that the lodestones are enchanted with a powerful locate person spell, but it only points to one person at a time. The key phrase to utilize this is repeated in the tome but the word is in primordial tongue and we cannot pronounce it correctly.

-After looting, we take a moment to honor the memory of Bantin by constructing a grave. Then head over to the side of the road where we left the refugees. We make it back to the area they had been left but there is no one to be seen. Following their tracks south-east we finally find them, where we discover Kreskil had said he’d go up the road to the north, but we didn’t see him. We rest up for the night, set up camp, awaiting the final stretch to Avgard.

-In the night Kilan wakes Salemar saying he heard some flapping of wings to the north, no farther than a few miles. We wake up the team and ask Kilan to protect everyone while we investigate, he is hesitant but agrees. Heading towards the sound it seems to quiet down until it eventually stops, instead we now hear the sound of cracking. We spot a humanoid character leaned up against a tree.

-Brekahn (Bantin’s daughter) sneaks up and grabs the guy. The man is balding, middle aged, and his eyes are completely white. Questioning him proves difficult as he appears obviously out of his mind, “the voices told me to come here” “there are many many voices”. He eventually invites us to follow him towards the voices. We follow him south-west moving quietly, when suddenly he stops abruptly and says “the voices… can’t decide…” then begins to walk north-west “we must go this way now”.

-We begin to hear more sounds of twigs snapping when another man emerged from the trees moving towards the same point as the man we’re following. Through the trees we begin to see a glow of white light being emitted from a floating wispy cloud. The men stop at the same time, we find more figures standing around the clearing with the mist.

-Investigating the light, it appears to have some arcane presence. Scord believes it could be used as an energy source. At the moment it appears to be in the process of being tapped or released. The branches and trees all around the clearing bend unnaturally away from the clearing. Searos grabs a rock and tosses it at the center of the light and it gets projected away. Salemar steps into the clearing and is buffeted by a strong wind. Tendrils emerge from the light and reach out towards him, exiting the circle the tendrils withdraw.

-Geoffrei and Brekahn try to grab and move one of the immobile humanoids, but struggle as if the man is rooted in place. The earth begins to creep over his feet, in a panic Brekahn plunges a dagger into the man, but he still doesn’t move. Salemar attacks the ground beneath the man, the dirt shakes, pulling the sword out the man eyes begin to shudder as he collapses twitching on the ground. Simultaneously there are resounding screams from the surrounding.